And some Now and Laters to eat

Now and Laters are a brand of candy products. They are hard and taffy-like. They are also really delicious

He used this specific candy as a reference to his hard past in comparison to his successful, or “good” future. This is also connected to the theme that a a person can live up to his or her potential (also the Romanticism/Transcendentalist movement in Europe). A parallel to this theme is that he is talking about himself in a current time, the real “now”. Then he would be questioning what comes after his fame, success and “intelligence”.